Tiger Woods speaks with reporters throughout the Hero World Problem.
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Simply days after saying ‘we’ll see’ about competing this month, Tiger Woods is in. He and his son, Charlie, will compete collectively at subsequent week’s PNC Championship, the annual household group occasion held in Orlando.
Woods made that preliminary assertion throughout the Sunday broadcast of his match, the Hero World Problem, throughout which he was not enjoying. Woods admitted every week in the past that he was “not match sharp but,” which saved him from enjoying within the Bahamas.
“I’m nonetheless not there,” Woods mentioned. “These are 20 of one of the best gamers on this planet and I’m not sharp sufficient to compete in opposition to them at this stage. So after I’m able to compete and play at this stage, then I’ll.”
For Woods, that’s the principle distinction: this stage. Competing in opposition to elite professionals, a few of that are half his age, on a Tour-level golf course could be very completely different than a parent-child exhibition occasion in Florida. The occasion is technically a Champions Tour occasion, which permits Woods to experience in a golf cart, lessening the load on his physique. It was simply three months in the past that Woods went beneath the knife but once more for a again surgical procedure associated to “nerve impingement” in his decrease again.
That September surgical procedure adopted a irritating 2024 marketing campaign that Woods finally referred to as a “misplaced 12 months” throughout his pre-Hero press convention. “I needed to toss [this year] away,” Woods mentioned, alluding to vital again ache he battled throughout the summer season. Woods has battled nerve ache working down his leg all through elements of his profession, a lot of which was swept away by his well-known spinal fusion surgical procedure that allowed him to get wholesome, compete in quite a lot of occasions a 12 months and, finally, win the 2019 Masters.
Whereas a lot has modified within the 5 years since that second, Woods isn’t going away. That a lot is evident by this PNC dedication, in addition to his involvement within the forthcoming simulator golf league named TGL, which can have him enjoying on ESPN on Monday and Tuesday nights in January, February and March. The complete TGL schedule could be discovered right here.
For Tiger and Charlie, it is going to be the fourth time they’ve competed collectively on the PNC, an occasion the elder Woods says they stay up for yearly. “[This event] simply deepens the bond between father and son,” Woods mentioned in 2022. “It’s been unimaginable through the years to have the ability to share this stage and this ambiance with him.”
It’s a really low-stakes return to enjoying golf in entrance of the general public, however one which Woods usually does with a bigger-than-normal smile on his face. The PNC is a two-day affair, the place groups embody a significant (or Gamers) champion and a member of the family. Nelly Korda performs along with her father, Petr. Lee Trevino performs together with his son, Daniel. Final 12 months’s match was gained by Bernhard Langer and his son, Jason. Groups play a scramble format over 36 holes, with professionals and amateurs usually enjoying from completely different tee containers, primarily based on their capacity. That mentioned, because the 15-year-old Charlie has grown in his skillset through the years, he has shifted backward, enjoying the identical set of tees in 2023 as Steve Stricker, Vijay Singh and loads of his dad’s largest rivals from many years in the past.
